'I was flabbergasted': Family from Marlborough receives special surprise at WooSox game

WORCESTER — Paige Perkinson was worried that she and her family showed up to Polar Park too early Sunday for the Worcester Red Sox game.

“As we were walking in, I was thinking ‘What are we going to do for this long?’” Perkinson said.

However, shortly after the gates opened at 11:30 a.m., Perkinson was identified as the fan who purchased the 500,000th ticket for a WooSox home game this season.

Surprise. Early bird gets the worm.

“I was flabbergasted,” said Perkinson, who lives in Marlborough.

Joining Perkinson at Polar Park on Sunday were her husband, David, and their 8-year-old son, Wiley, who attends third grade at Goodnow Brothers Elementary School, and their close friend, Amy McHugh from Quincy.

When Perkinson walked through the gates pregame, she noticed a few WooSox mascots holding a big basket. The theatre teacher at Newton South High School, who also serves as the Director of Development at the Newton Theatre Company, was eyeing the gift package but thought she would have to purchase raffle tickets for it.

Nope, just ticket No. 500K for the 2024 season.

“Then it turns out we won it,” she said.

“It was just fantastic,” David said. “Incredible news.”

Included in the gift basket were a few WooSox bobbleheads, baseballs and collector cards. Wiley, who played Little League baseball this past spring, was excited for his surprise baseball cards.

“It’s starting his collection,” his mother said.

“I told him to hang on to them because some of them might be worth something someday,” his father said.

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After crowd capacities were reduced during Polar Park’s inaugural season in 2021, the WooSox are the only Minor League Baseball club to cross the threshold of selling 500,000 tickets in each of the past three seasons.

“Our fans have sustained their enthusiasm for WooSox baseball all four years,” WooSox president Dr. Charles Steinberg said. “And they inspire us to look for newer, cooler and better ways to thank them. We have a special love affair going on in Worcester.”

And for the fifth and final time this season, Paige Perkinson and her family attended a Worcester Red Sox game.

They’re glad they decided to show up early.

“Worth it,” Perkinson said. “I don’t think we’ll ever be able to get here any later ever again.”

—Contact Tommy Cassell at tcassell@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @tommycassell44.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: 'I was flabbergasted': Family from Marlborough receives special surprise at WooSox game